applied were repudiated or considerably modified one must expect a corresponding cessation or modification of the common law relating to it. Of many such instances confession would be one. Even the established Church of England did not claim for confession absolute inviolability. That said, there has never been any legislation in England, one way or the other, about the disclosure in evidence of religious confession. If the privilege had ceased to be part of the common law, legislation would be necessary to re-establish it. If it survived in the common law it could only have done so through the allowance of it in the Church of England. Current position International variation The Anglican Communion is an international communion and laws concerning priest-penitent privilege differ from country to country. Similarly, the different member churches of the communion each have their own canons or other governing regulations. The practice of private confession has a varying degree of importance in the different churches of the Anglican Communion; although all base their doctrinal position ultimately upon the doctrine expressed in the Book of Common Prayer (1662) which urges the use of private confession by all who "cannot quiet his own conscience" by the means of "self-examination, confession and repentance". Despite the huge range of attitudes towards the practice, there is an understanding among the clergy throughout Anglicanism that there is an inviolable confidence between the individual priest and the penitent. Church of England legislation In the Church of England, when new canons were introduced in 1969, they repealed most of the Canons of 1604, but Canon 113 (see above) was left unrepealed, and remains in force. The Guidelines for the Professional Conduct of the Clergy (2003), which are currently in force throughout the Church of England, state at section 7.2 "There can be no disclosure of what is confessed to a priest. This principle holds even after the death of the penitent. The priest may not refer to what has been learnt in confession, even to the penitent, unless explicitly permitted."; and add at section 7.4 "If a penitent's behaviour gravely threatens his or her well-being or that of others, the priest, while advising action on the penitent's part, must still keep the confidence". The 21st century has presented its own set of problems and questions. The Church of England has found itself responding to social pressures for greater self-regulation of professions including such